Tuesday, May 02, 2006

To paraphrase Harry Dunne, standing in the middle of the Great Plains, as Lloyd Christmas pulls up on a moped:“Just when I thought you couldn't look any worse, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!”

After attending Monday’s debacle (that’s really what it was) and going through the gamut of emotions that accompanied Jim Thome back to the Jake (see the comments section from the last post, including a shot of Thome from a Dugout Suite, courtesy T-Bone), the Indians totally redeemed themselves by shelling Mark Buehrle and the White Sox to the tune of 7-1.

Amazing how a team that looks so disinterested and unmotivated one night can look like a completely different team the next day when the starting pitching is solid (welcome back, C.C. – you’ve been missed), the bullpen holds up, and the offense (led by Hafner) gets into his groove.

In other news, Cabrera has returned from the DL, as Wedge will try to carve out some roles in the bullpen. Outside of Mota and Wickman closing games, expect Davis (who briefly reverted back to Jason Dangerously on Monday by overthrowing and losing control of his emotions…and the game) and Cabrera to work their way through the 6th and 7th. Guthrie will serve as the long man, and could work himself into the long-term plans if he can prove that his stuff translates into a relief role. The two weak links, Gas Can Graves (who, I have to admit has improved) and Scott Sauerbeck (who has done a HORRIBLE job as a match-up lefty) will have to do as the bullpen remains a work in progress.

Tribe heads off on a West Coast trip to face the A’s (minus Esteban Loaiza, Rich Harden, and Milton Bradley – and maybe Jason Kendall after today’s brawl) and the M’s (where they’ll face Indian killer Jaime Moyer on Friday).

These are the games that start at 10PM, end at 1AM, and forced someone like me to invent TiVO.

Posted by
Paul Cousineau

4 comments:

Hi there, I started a Blogger account to leave a comment. I really appreciate this blog, because I go to college in Upstate NY (where baseball doesn't exist beyond the Red Sox and the Yankees), so it's good to get news about the Indians.

Anyway, I was able to watch today's game, and enjoyed seeing the Indians put it to Buehrle and the Sox. It's weird seeing Thome back at Jacobs Field, but I don't know if I was comfortable booing. Yeah, he left Cleveland, but he did so thinking he was going to a contender. And he's always been a class act. And we have Pronk anyway.

In closing, did you hear Rob Mackowiak say a very bad word when he flied out in the seventh? I managed to capture some video of it.

From ESPN.com's recap...."Byrd got all the offense he needed and then some.

He even received a call from Atlanta ace John Smoltz last week in which Smoltz admitted he envied all the run support Byrd was getting -- though both players are religious and being envious of anyone is not an accepted practice in their faith."

I don't even know how to respond to that. It's baseball...a game, its not like he's envious of Mrs. Byrd's sweater puppies or something.